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Hume, David.
Political Discourses.
Publisher: Printed by Sands, Murray, and Cochran. For A. Kincaid and A. Donaldson., Edinburgh;
Date of Publication: 1754
Stock Code: 15017
Stated third edition, published two years after the first. Duodecimo, pp., [4], 270. Contemporary brown sheep, spine on five raised bands, titled in gilt to red leather spine label; rolls in blind to edges; all edges sprinkled red. Former marks of ownership to front free end-paper: ‘J. Billingsley-Shepton Malle’ (printed in contemporary typographic style, partially obliterated); ‘Frank Powell’ (in ink in later hand, partially obliterated); ‘David French // November 1952’ (in ink). Extensive annotations by French to the first third of the book. Joints rubbed, shelf-wear to extremities with minor loss to head of spine, upper hinge cracked. Internally clean. A used but serviceable copy. An early printing of Hume’s first substantial work on political economy, which was later republished in Essays, Moral, and Political. Hume addresses issues including free trade, luxury, money, property, power, and taxation. ‘The Political Discourses was the first and, as Hume remembered, the only one of his works to enjoy immediate success, with a second edition later in the year. It was also the first to be translated.’ (ODNB). £150.00